The 1979 European elections

The 1979 European election was a dramatic triumph for Ian
Paisley, who achieved the DUP's best result to date, humikliating
the UUP. Paisley would continue to top the poll at European
elections until 2004; it was some time before his party's vote as
a whoel came near to his personal appeal.

The
first preference votes cast in the European election in Northern
Ireland
on 7 June 1989 (see spreadsheet):

Democratic Unionist Party (Rev Ian Paisley
MP)

170,688 (29.8%)

Social Democratic and Labour Party (John
Hume)

140,622 (25.5%)

Ulster Unionist Party (John Taylor)

68,185 (11.9%)

Ulster Unionist Party (Harry West)

56,984 (10.0%)

Alliance Party (Oliver Napier)

39,026 (6.8%)

Ind Unionist (James
Kilfedder MP)

38,198 (6.7%)

Independent (Bernadette
McAliskey)

33,969 (5.9%)

United Community (David
Bleakley)

9,383 (1.6%)

United Labour
Party (Paddy
Devlin)

6,122 (1.1%)

Unionist Party
of Northern
Ireland (Edward Cummings)

3,712 (0.6%)

Republican Clubs (Brian
Brennan)

3,258 (0.6%)

Republican Clubs (Francis
Donnelly)

1,160 (0.2%)

Liberal (James
Murray)

932 (0.2%)

Turnout
was 586,059 of the 1,0229,490 electorate. 13,773 votes were
invalid;
572,239 votes were valid. The quota was 143,060.

Transfers: Stage 2

The
DUP candidate (Paisley) was declared
elected
on the first count as his votes exceeded the quota (143,060).

Paisley's
surplus of 27,628 was then distributed to the next
available
preference as follows:

82,642 votes (48.4%) went to the two UUP
candidates - 56,523
(33.1%) at a value of 9,043.68 to Taylor, taking him to
77,228.68, and
26,119 (15.3%) at a value of 4,179.04 to West, taking him to
61,163.04

77,652 votes (45.5%), at a value of 12,424.32,
went to the independent
Unionist, Kilfedder, taking him to 50,622.32, ahead of the
Alliance
candidate

2,363 votes (1.4%), at a value of 378.08, went to
the Alliance candidate, Napier, for a total of 39,404.08

1,361 votes (0.8%), at a value of 217.76, went to
the United Community candidate, Bleakley, for a total of
9,600.76

781 votes (0.5%), at a value of 124.96, went to
the UPNI candidate, Cummings, for a total of 3,836.96

341 votes (0.2%), at a value of 54.56, went to
the SDLP candidate, Hume, for a total of 140,676.56

155 votes (0.1%), at a value of 24.80, went to
the United Labour Party candidate, Devlin, for a total of
6,146.80

100 votes (0.1%), at a value of 16.00, went to
the Liberal candidate, Murray, for a total of 948.00

59 votes (0.03%) went to the two Republican Clubs
candidates - 34 (0.02%) at a value of 5.44 to Brennan, taking
him to
3,263.44, and 25 (0.01%) at a value of 4.00 to Donnelly, taking
him to
1,164.00

42 votes (0.02%), at a value of 6.72, went to the
independent candidate, McAliskey, taking her to a total of
33,975.72

5,192 votes were non-transferable. The remainder
from the fractions above was 1,148.64

Transfers: Stage 3

The
votes of the bottom six candidates (Liberal, two Republican Clubs,
UPNI, United Labour and United Community) in total were still less
than
McAliskey's, so they were all eliminated and their votes
redistributed
to the next available preference as follows:

6,298.88 (25.2%) went to Alliance (Napier),
taking him to 45,702.96

5,396.00 (21.6%) went to the SDLP (Hume), taking
him to 146,072.56 and therefore over the quota

3,768.40 (15.1%) went to the two UUP candidates -
2,979.28 (11.9%) to Taylor, taking him to 80,207.96, and 789.12
(3.2%)
to West, taking him to 61,952.16

3,363.84 (13.5%) went to the independent Unionist
(Kilfedder), taking him to 53,986.16

2,129.72 (8.5%) went to the independent candidate
(McAliskey), taking her to 36,105.44

4003.12 (16.0%) were non-transferable.

NB: strictly speaking
Hume received 22.0% of the available transfers, as he got enough
from
the eliminated candidates' first preferences to take him over the
quota.

Transfers: Stage 4

The
SDLP surplus of 3,000 could not have rescued the independent
candidate,
McAliskey, who was more than 9,000 votes behind the Alliance Party,
so
she was eliminated and her votes redistributed to the next available
preference as follows:

5,560.80 (15.4%) went to Alliance (Napier) taking
him to 51,263.76

637.72 (1.8%) went to the independent Unionist,
Kilfedder, taking him to 54,623.88

385.92 (1.1%) went to the two UUP candidates -
197.96 (0.5%) to Taylor, taking him to 80,405.92, and 187.96
(0.5%) to
West, taking him to 62,140.12

29,521.00 (81.8%) were non-transferable.

Transfers: Stage 5

Alliance
was less than 3,400 votes behind the independent Unionist, but it
was
margin enough for Napier to be eliminated and his votes transferred
as
follows:

19,776.96 (38.6%) to the two UUP candidates -
16,001.44 (31.2%) to Taylor, taking him to 96,407.36, and
3,755.52
(7.4%) to West, taking him to 65,915.64

14,760.08 (28.8%) to the independent Unionist,
Kilfedder, taking him to 69,383.96 and ahead of West

16,726.72 (32.6%) were non-transferable

Transfers: Stage 6

The
UUP's weaker candidate, West, was eliminated (Kilfedder again having
a
crucial margin of 3,400) and his votes were distributed between
Taylor
and Kilfedder as follows:

57,059.00 votes (86.6%) were transferred to his
running-mate Taylor, taking him to 153,466.36 and over the quota

3,174.00 votes (4.8%) were transferred to
Kilfedder, giving him a final total of 72,557.96

5,682.64 votes (8.6%) were not transferred

(I
confess I'm a little puzzled that Taylor, who was 46,653 votes short
of
the quota, was not declared elected after the distribution of West's
56,984 first preferences alone - that must have given him enough.
Obviously all West's full-value votes were considered as a single
block.)

Past
elections

This
graph shows the performances of the main parties in the five
direct
elections to the European parliament held so far (NB that the 2004
result in yellow is that of independent candidate John Gilliland,
not the Alliance Party). You can find a summary of the results of
the five most recent
NI
elections at all levels on this site's home
page and on a different page is a summary
of
NI election results since 1973.